Tag Archives: Trump

10/7 VP Debate & OT; Happy Hour

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(image credit: Getty)

The vice-presidential debate actually matters this time

Not only are Vice President Pence and Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) as different as night and day politically, but also they present an inescapable demographic contrast between two Americas. Harris, of Jamaican and Indian descent, and Pence, quite possibly the Whitest man in the country, bring different life experiences and represent what many see as the future and the past.

Demographically, as well as politically, it seems the future is brown and female. America’s past, as pollsters and pundits never tire of reminding us, is White and male.

Should such things matter? Obviously, what matters most are character, intelligence, experience and beliefs, combined with temperament and those incalculable human qualities we’ve been missing these past four years — empathy, sincerity, warmth, wisdom, seriousness of purpose and, so important, humor. Self-deprecation, something we’ve seen in presidents going back generations, is a sign not only of confidence but also of humility. Donald Trump is the first president I can recall who clearly has no idea what I’m talking about.

While it is customary to evaluate whether a vice president is presidential material should circumstance warrant, such warranting is a serious matter this time around. Democratic nominee Joe Biden is 77 and, though it can be uncomfortable to discuss, is increasingly showing his age, even if he seems healthy and sharp most of the time. The number 80 looms large in any presidential calculus. Trump is 74 himself and, oh yes, currently is infected by a deadly virus.

Thus, the compelling questions: Does America consider Harris, who dropped out of the Democratic primary race early because of her weak standing, ready to be president of the United States at a moment of enormous uncertainty and upheaval? Her résumé, which includes serving as California’s attorney general and a U.S. senator, needs little buffing. Ironically, her prosecutorial record, in some ways, reads more conservative than the liberal, Black Lives Matter emissary she has become. Then again, voter volition is more complex than political biography.

For Pence, the test is different. What has he become after almost four years as one of Trump’s closest advisers and supporters — one who, protected by the Constitution, couldn’t be fired?

The vice president is no slouch either, as résumés go. Before joining the Trump team, he was governor of Indiana and a six-term member of the U.S. House. Most likely, however, the image most people likely conjure up of him now is silent sentinel over the president’s shoulder. He’s very much more than that, however. Newt Gingrich has said that Pence is, after Trump, one of the few people with the most policy influence in the administration.

When, just a few days ago, Pence seemed poised to take over the presidency (at least temporarily) when Trump fell ill with covid-19, the nation was suddenly forced to consider what that would be like. Given how things have gone these past days, perhaps they thought they could get used to it. On Monday, in one of his oddest performances to date (which is saying something), Trump stood at attention on the White House balcony and held a sustained military salute like something choreographed by Kim Jong Un’s propaganda machine. This signified — what? That the commander in chief, newly home from the hospital, was reporting for duty?

What to know about the 2020 presidential debates

In the same news cycle, a manic Trump irresponsibly and dangerously advised Americans not to fear covid-19.

So voters can be forgiven as they watch Wednesday’s debate and imagine a different future.

Is America ready, if not now, then perhaps in 2024, for a President Pence? A President Harris? At least there’s a solid chance people can form an opinion after tuning in. Unlike last week’s angry, incoherent presidential debate, which was anything but presidential, Pence and Harris can be expected to discuss the issues like normal politicians. There may be occasional barbs, but if you’re interested in how the two tickets’ policies differ, this is the one to watch.

For now, it seems that for a growing majority of voters, including in swing states the polls say are drifting toward the Democrats, a Harris administration would be better than a second Trump term. Yet, if Trump does make a comeback, it could be because of Harris. From my own reading of conservatives, many would happily vote for the familiar Biden but fear his potential succession by Harris, who they believe would turn the country hard to the left. A strong and credible performance by Harris on Wednesday could allay some of those fears.

In 2020, Joe Biden and Donald Trump may be the headliners, but, clearly, Kamala Harris and Mike Pence are far more than also-rans.

More news, tweets, videos, and jibber-jabber in the comments. Happy Hump day!

Update: a Tweet that is riffing off Goodfellas. Can you guess the song?

Benny’s Bar is Now Open for Happy Hour. Mocktails, Beer, Wine, Mad Men cocktails served upon request in the comments.

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7/15 Progressives Have a Window in TX; AOC Punks Ivanka’s Goya Ad; News Roundup & OT

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Leave it to AOC to tee up for someone to jab the Trumps. Spoken in Spanish…nonetheless.

Texas gained some progressives wins for the GE this fall. Grim and Chavez at The Intercept write:

The recent wave of progressive primary victories rolled into Texas on Tuesday evening, with Candace Valenzuela and Mike Siegel pulling into strong leads against centrist opponents for the chance to flip Republican-held suburban districts. In the Travis County district attorney race, José Garza, an immigrant rights activist and former public defender backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, ousted incumbent Margaret Moore. The Democratic national party’s pick for Senate, M.J. Hegar, meanwhile, found herself locked in a much closer fight than expected with Royce West, though by the end of the night, she appeared headed for a general election race against Republican Sen. John Cornyn.

With well more than half of the precincts reporting, Siegel was leading physician Pritesh Gandhi by 9 percentage points and declared victory around 10 p.m., Texas time. Valenzuela was up nearly 20 points over veteran Kim Olson, and also declared victory.

Computer engineer Donna Imam was leading Christine Mann, a physician who backed single-payer health care, by almost 14 percentage points in a race where the ideological lines were less clearly drawn.

snip

The wins would be well-timed. Simply winning a handful of House races each cycle is nowhere near enough to change the structure of Congress fast enough to stave off cataclysmic climate change tipping points, to rescue the economy from a tailspin, or to address the unfolding health care crisis. But if the window for big legislative maneuvering opens in 2021, and House Democrats feel that their seats are in jeopardy if they don’t go big, the consensus within the party of what the most strategic move is could shift left.

SIEGEL, A CIVIL rights attorney who supports a Green New Deal and Medicare for All, first ran in 2018, when Democrats considered the district out of range, but surprised officials back in Washington by winning 47 percent of the vote. That blood in the water drew new candidates, notably corporate attorney Shannon Hutcheson, who was backed by EMILY’s List and was clearly the establishment favorite, even though she did not have the official backing of the DCCC.

But a super PAC backing Gandhi, 314 Action, spent heavily pounding away at Hutcheson, and she failed to make the runoff. The super PAC has continued to spend big — dropping close to $600,000 on the race — in the runoff. The PAC presents itself as pro-science, but endorsed John Hickenlooper, a champion of fracking, in Colorado, and Gandhi has called the Green New Deal and Medicare for All “fool’s gold.” 314’s main line of attack against Siegel is that his loss last cycle proves he is unable to win the general election. Ironically, of course, it was his surprisingly narrow defeat that coaxed Gandhi and Hutcheson into the race. The parallels with Levin’s 2018 race are notable, as Applegate, like Siegel, helped make the district competitive the cycle prior, and 314 Action helped power Levin over Applegate.

Sen. Kamala Harris had endorsed Gandhi, while Siegel had the backing of Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Siegel’s outspoken civil rights record was a boon throughout June, as protests erupted after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers.

In his victory speech Tuesday night, Siegel noted that the district is more than just a stretch of suburbs, zeroing in on the closure of three rural hospitals in the district over the past 10 years. “We are in a district where the legacy of Jim Crow racism hangs heavy,” he said, noting the recent five-year anniversary of the death of Sandra Bland in the district.

The wave of protests also helped Valenzuela, who surged significantly following the March 3 primary. Last week, a survey, which was commissioned by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and conducted in July by Data for Progress, revealed a significant shift in the race, showing that Valenzuela was climbing, leading Olson by an 11-point margin. Early voting data from her campaign suggests that the surge was fueled by higher turnout among voters of color. If elected, Valenzuela would be the first Afro-Latina in Congress. And as someone who grew up homeless, at one point “sleeping in a kiddie pool outside a gas station,” Valenzuela would also be bringing this economic perspective to Congress, where many of the lawmakers are millionaires. She noted in her victory speech that, thanks to a newborn and another young child, “the majority of our campaign was run out of our master bathroom.”

Leading up to the March primary, Olson led the rest of the field in fundraising and as a retired Air Force colonel, fit the mold of the party’s preferred candidate. But her record, specifically that Olson was charged with war profiteering in Iraq, had the potential to be too big of a political liability in the general election, so the House Democrats’ campaign arm stayed out of the race. EMILY’s List, which doesn’t typically weigh in on races between two pro-choice women, backed Valenzuela.

Valenzuela also won endorsements from the Congressional Hispanic, Black, Asian, and Progressive Caucuses, and lawmakers like Warren and Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. In the most recent fundraising quarter, The Intercept reported last week, Valenzuela outraised Olson, $465,000 to $438,000, with a smaller average campaign contribution.

Garza, executive director of the Workers Defense Project, ran on a progressive platform that focused on transforming the criminal justice system to decriminalize poverty. He was endorsed by Sanders, Warren, Julián and Joaquin Castro, the Austin DSA chapter, the Center for Popular Democracy Action, and the Working Families Party. One of the major highlights of Garza’s platform was a vow to treat substance abuse as a public health crisis and end the prosecution of low-level drug offenses, which he defined as the sale and possession of a gram or less of narcotics.

More news, tweets, videos, etc in the comments. This also serves as an open thread.